Online-Vortrag | Empirical approaches to linguistic variation in Timok variety of Torlak

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Empirical approaches to linguistic variation in Timok variety of Torlak

Teodora Vuković
Anastasia Escher
Barbara Sonnenhauser

(Slavisches Seminar, Universität Zürich)

+++ Donnerstag, 16. Dezember 2021 | 14:15 Uhr | via Zoom +++

This work deals with linguistic variation in one non-standard spoken variety, the Timok dialect spoken in Southeast Serbia, at the border with Bulgaria. Being a transitional variety situated on the periphery of both linguistic areas, it contains an overlap of grammatical features which belong to these typologically distinct languages. At the same time, in the context of Serbian varieties Timok is highly stigmatized and subject to social discrimination, thus being under a strong influence of the standard. This multi-directional overlap of influences makes it rich in variation.

With the goal to disentangle those influences, the research presented here applies empirical quantitative methods of corpus linguistics and statistical modeling, on a corpus of fieldwork interviews from Timok. The approach takes individual representative linguistic features as a foundational element where the formal variation happens, focusing on surface manifestations of morphosyntactic features that are identifiable in corpus text. It deconstructs the variation within features based on the linguistic conditions that appear relevant for each feature in search of triggers and constraints. Apart from the formal linguistic context, another aspect of the research searches for factors guiding variation outside of language itself, in social structure or geographic layout.

The talk presents several stages and studies in this enterprise, aiming to draw a pattern of variation in Timok, on the one hand. On the other hand, it puts forward a creative synthesis of tools and methods applying them to the problem of variation, integrating corpus and computational linguistics, variationist approaches, dialectometry, and statistics, all in the context of South Slavic linguistics.

Teodora Vuković, Doctor in Spe - doctoral candidate at the Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Zurich.
Anastasia Escher, PhD - postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Zurich.
Barbara Sonnenhauser, Prof. Dr. - professor of Slavic Linguistics at the Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Zurich.

Der Gastvortrag findet im Rahmen des Seminars „Sprachkontakt in der Slavia“ von Prof. Dr. Sandra Birzer statt.

Zoom-Zugangsdaten:

https://uni-bamberg.zoom.us/j/95728004696

Meeting-ID: 957 2800 4696
Kenncode: T@vB3N